{"id":367639,"date":"2017-11-02T07:14:33","date_gmt":"2017-11-02T07:14:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=367639"},"modified":"2017-11-02T07:14:33","modified_gmt":"2017-11-02T07:14:33","slug":"ndc-cashed-400m-cocoa-loan-after-losing-2016-polls-cocobod","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2017\/11\/ndc-cashed-400m-cocoa-loan-after-losing-2016-polls-cocobod\/","title":{"rendered":"NDC cashed $400m cocoa loan after losing 2016 polls \u2013 COCOBOD"},"content":{"rendered":"
The Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana COCOBOD, Joseph Boahene Aidoo, says government is investigating the withdrawal of $400 million cedis out of the $1.8 billion cocoa syndicated loan secured for the 2016\/2017 crop season, between December 20th and January 2017, when the National Democratic Congress (NDC) administration, had already lost the 2016 elections and were on their way out of office.<\/p>\n
The COCOBOD CEO says Ghanaians will soon know the outcome of their investigations into that transaction.<\/p>\n
[contextly_sidebar id=”ksYHXDX3cmDvdOO7J9SdPXUgbB7eEiPk”]He explained that, the NDC government secured an amount of US$1.8 billion for the 2016\/2017 cocoa purchases, which were projected at 850,000 metric tonnes.<\/p>\n
According to him, as at January 2017, the US$1.8 billion had been fully drawn and utilized when only 587,125 metric tonnes of cocoa had been purchased.<\/p>\n
He said \u201cThe mystery surrounding the exhaustion of the US$1.8 billion is being investigated and the full facts will be made known to Ghanaians in due course. Peculiar to the loan utilization is the last drawdown of US$400.0 million which was effected on 20th December 2016 at the time the NDC had woefully lost the December 2016 elections.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is still surprising how the full drawdown of US$400.00 million (GH\u00a21.69 billion) was fully expended between 20th December 2016 and 6th January 2017 when the NPP government took over after 7th January 2017. Audit findings into the utilization of the amount will be made known to Ghanaians at the appropriate time when the full facts are unravelled.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr. Boahen Aidoo said, despite this inability to account properly for the loan, the NPP government was saddled with a whopping debt of GHC19.6 billion after taking over in January 2017.<\/p>\n
The COCOBOD CEO, who spoke to journalists at a news conference on Wednesday, took on the NDC Minority, because according to him, they have made several baseless and false claims about the new government\u2019s management of the cocoa sector.<\/p>\n
He said the penchant to siphon funds through inflated contracts was rampant in the NDC administration through ill-conceived construction contracts in the cocoa sector.<\/p>\n
He said such contracts were awarded without proper value for money analysis, bringing into question the motive behind them.<\/p>\n
COCOBOD built Bole guest house for Mahama\u2019s comfort \u2013 CEO<\/strong><\/p>\n